As part of The First Welcome in Silicon Valley series, I have been asking founder friends to share their stories of the first welcome they experienced in Silicon Valley. These are the people, the moments, and the gestures that stayed with them.

In this case, Tony Tom, Co-founder of Orca AI, shared the person who made all the difference when he first moved from India to San Francisco.

Tony is now building Orca AI, a context-aware AI platform for B2B support that unifies customer success, customer support, and product marketing into a single post-sales experience. Before Orca AI, he spent a decade in B2B, was the founding PM and 5th employee at Insent (acquired by ZoomInfo), and co-founded Refly, a smart editor for content marketers.

"For me, that person was Arjun Pillai. When I first moved to San Francisco from India, he was the one who helped me find my footing. He made critical introductions to the right founders and investors, but his welcome went far beyond that. He and his family opened their home to me, which made a huge difference for someone missing home and the food.

What truly stayed with me was seeing his genuine desire to make a difference in people's lives. It showed me that the most valuable welcome in Silicon Valley isn't just about business; it’s about human connection and building a community where everyone can thrive."

Tony’s story is a reminder that the first welcome often extends beyond professional help. Sometimes it is about being invited into someone’s home, sharing a meal, or simply being cared for in a new place. That spirit of generosity is what makes Silicon Valley more than just a hub of innovation. It makes it a community.

What was planned as two neat panels turned into a whirlwind of ideas, discussions, and insights. The air was buzzing with more energy than a Friday night concert.

The conversations went way beyond slides and soundbites. Speakers opened up about what’s really working in GTM and CX and how AI is shaking things up from the inside out. It felt less like a panel discussion and more like a backstage pass into the playbooks of builders, innovators, and leaders who are shaping this shift in real time.

A massive thank you to every speaker who brought their A-game on stage.

AI × CX Panel:
Harshita Banka - VP of Customer Experience Transformation, Infor
Rafael Godinez - Senior Manager of Customer Success, Zoom
Sangita Ray - Director of Customer Success, WRITER
Gaby Moran - VP of Cutomer Success Management and Experience, Workato

AI × GTM Panel:
Aquibur Rahman - CEO, Mailmodo
Jen Cheng - Founder, Arc and Amplify
Hitesh A. - Co-Founder, Breakout
Nalin Senthamil - Founder & CEO, Storylane

You all made the night unforgettable and left the room smarter, sharper, and hungry for more. And of course, a huge shoutout to everyone who showed up. You’re the heartbeat of this community and the reason it’s growing faster than we ever imagined. Gratitude also to Zoom (Ojus Save) for giving us the perfect stage and to eChai Ventures (Jatin Chaudhary) for always being the strong support behind the community.

If you weren’t in the room you missed the vibe, the rawness, the laughter, and the moments of “aha” that no LinkedIn carousel can truly capture. But don’t worry… this is just the beginning. The AI Shift has momentum and the next one will be even bigger.

At eChai Ventures, our Unforgettable Lessons series captures the stories founders carry with them — the moments of rejection, resilience, and realization that change how they build and grow.

For Ishani Upadhyay Dave, Co-Founder & CEO of ShaadiVibe, one such lesson unfolded in a café in Ahmedabad, just weeks before her official launch.

Here’s how she tells it:

My path to building this platform has been filled with unexpected twists, but one story from early on taught me a lesson I'll never forget: the importance of community over competition. It unfolded in a bustling Ahmedabad café in March 2025, just weeks before our official launch.

I was there to meet a potential investor, a well-known name in Gujarat's startup scene, hoping to secure funding to scale ShaadiVibe. ShaadiVibe was still a bootstrap operation, and I had sunk my personal savings into developing the website and onboarding our first 100 verified vendors.

The meeting started promisingly; he praised our focus on Tier 1 and 2 cities, where 55% of Gujarat's weddings happen. But then he leaned in and said, "This is great, but you're too small. WedMeGood and WeddingWire dominate, why not sell your tech to them instead?"

It felt like a gut punch. I'd quit my corporate job to build something that empowered offline vendors, not to hand it over. My face burned with a mix of anger and disappointment as I shook his hand and left, wondering if I was naive to think we could compete.

That rejection lingered for days, making me question everything. But it also sparked an idea: instead of chasing big money, why not lean into the local network?

I reached out to a small group of vendors we'd already connected with, florists and decorators who had shared their pain points about 10–40% middlemen fees. I talked to vendors not to pitch or sell our subscription plan, but to listen and collaborate.

To my surprise, one vendor, a young photographer named Aarav, offered to introduce us to his network in Surat. "We're all in this together," he said. That single gesture snowballed: within a month, we onboarded 200 more vendors through word-of-mouth, and our site traffic hit 1,500 couples.

It wasn't investor cash that fueled our growth. It was genuine relationships.

The lesson hit hard: in a cutthroat market, building a community of allies beats going it alone. That investor's “no” pushed me to prioritize trust and collaboration, which has grown ShaadiVibe to 490+ vendors today, saving couples 20–35% on planning costs.

At eChai Ventures, our Unforgettable Lessons series brings forward the defining truths founders learn on their journeys. These are not just stories of success, but of survival, resilience, and the inner conviction that keeps entrepreneurs moving through uncertainty.

For Priyanka Sachdeva, Founder of Core & Pure – Essential Oils, the most powerful lesson has been about passion, purpose, and the responsibility to keep going even when no one else can step in.

Here’s how she tells it:

From the outside, entrepreneurship often looks like a straight path to success, freedom, innovation, and growth. In reality, it is a relentless journey filled with volatility, setbacks, and constant recalibration. The lesson I’ve learned is simple yet profound: unless you are building something you truly believe in and are deeply passionate about, you won’t have the resilience to navigate the inevitable ups and downs.

I’ve seen days in business where survival itself was in question, when money was scarce, both personally and professionally. In those moments, one truth became crystal clear: no one else will step in to rescue you. You are the one who has to find the ways and means to move forward.

As the first Shiva Sutra says, “Only you are your own.” That wisdom holds 100% true in entrepreneurship. Only you can make it possible, no one else.

At eChai Ventures, our Unforgettable Lessons series captures the moments that shape how founders and leaders build, lead, and grow. These are not always stories of success but of the doubts, risks, and decisions that define the journey.

For Charu Mishra, CEO of AMRTM (Dholakia Foundation), that moment came when she stepped into an industry she knew little about and discovered that leadership is less about having ready answers and more about showing up with responsibility every single day.

Here’s how she tells it:

If you had asked me a few years ago whether I’d ever find myself leading a social enterprise in the water sector, I would’ve laughed. Water? It felt too simple, too basic, too ordinary. But the truth is, nothing about water is simple once you try to build a purpose-driven brand around it.

You must be wondering what AMRTM is? It started with a purpose. Dholakia Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Hari Krishna Exports Pvt. Ltd., has worked extensively on water conservation initiatives. We looked at the dry, cracked earth of rural Gujarat and chose action over apathy. With a deep commitment to water conservation, the foundation led the revival of over 160 water bodies and conserved over 36 billion liters of water, bringing life back to dying rivers, empowering farmers, and creating sustainable livelihoods for rural communities.

AMRTM was born from that mission. What if the water we worked so hard to conserve could reach people not just as hydration, but as a symbol of revival, sustainability, and hope? That’s the heart behind AMRTM.

My journey into AMRTM started without a blueprint. I had no prior experience in the industry, no ready answers, and no “playbook” to follow. What I did have was honesty towards my work and a belief that whatever role I take up, I must give it my all, never half-heartedly. Maybe that’s why, when the opportunity to lead AMRTM came, I didn’t step back despite not knowing everything. I trusted my ability to learn, to adapt, and to build from scratch.

And it wasn’t easy. There were days of doubt, when I wondered if we were even moving in the right direction. There were nights that stretched endlessly with discussions, planning, and re-planning. I never imagined that something as universal as water could demand so much, from quality checks to building trust with consumers, from understanding production processes to strategizing brand positioning. Every small decision carried weight.

But here’s the unforgettable lesson I carry from this journey: you don’t need to have all the answers on day one. What you need is the willingness to ask the right questions, to keep learning, and to show up with responsibility every single day.

Becoming a CEO may sound exotic from the outside, but in reality, it’s about accountability. It’s about ensuring that your team feels guided, supported, and trusted, while also keeping a close eye on quality, because ultimately, the responsibility is yours. And in my case, the responsibility became even greater because AMRTM is not my own venture. The trust placed in me to lead it, without gender bias and purely on merit, is something I deeply value. It makes me double the responsible and double the committed.

Building AMRTM wasn’t just about launching a water brand. It was about becoming a student again, learning a completely new industry, making mistakes, correcting them, and moving forward with resilience. It was about bringing together a team that shares the same heart and vision, and about holding myself to the highest standards of honesty and hard work.

Yes, challenges still lie ahead. Yes, mistakes will happen. But I am not afraid anymore. I feel prepared. Because this journey has already taught me the toughest and most beautiful lesson of all: with patience, intention, and belief, even the most complex journeys can be built step by step.